,
8 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
News to me. I started banging the drum for that options 3 minutes after the Referendum, and never got ANY support from Remainers. They preferred to turn into FBPEers and Cadwalladistas.
Daniel Hannan once said that a lot of British Europhiles were not really "pro-EU" - they just hated British Eurosceptics.
Being pro-EU was just their way of saying "I'm not like Those People. I'm more sophisticated. I speak French, and I pronounce Italian names correctly."
Being pro-EU was just their way of saying "I'm not like Those People. I'm more sophisticated. I speak French, and I pronounce Italian names correctly."
The aftermath of the EU Referendum proved him right.
If you were pro-EU because you appreciate specific benefits of EU membership, your rational response to the Referendum would have been to look for a second-best option, which preserves most of those benefits.
Very few did that.
If you were pro-EU because you appreciate specific benefits of EU membership, your rational response to the Referendum would have been to look for a second-best option, which preserves most of those benefits.
Very few did that.
If you assume that they are pro-EU for utilitarian reasons, this seems totally irrational. If it's free movement and Erasmus semesters and the European Health Insurance Card you want, why not support the Norway Option?
But if you assume that it's about signalling, it makes sense.
But if you assume that it's about signalling, it makes sense.
Because being pro-EFTA and pro-EEA doesn't send that signal. It doesn't send ANY signal, because those arrangements are not sufficiently well-known, and they were never part of the culture war around the EU.
That's why it didn't fly with most Remainers.
That's why it didn't fly with most Remainers.
Suppose there's a type of wine which is widely associated with sophistication.
Now the wine store runs out of it, but they tell everyone: "We've got this totally unknown grape, which is quite similar in style, just less tangy, more easy-drinking."
This is the watershed moment...
Now the wine store runs out of it, but they tell everyone: "We've got this totally unknown grape, which is quite similar in style, just less tangy, more easy-drinking."
This is the watershed moment...
...at which the utilitarian and the signaller part company.
If it's the taste you're after, you'll think, "Sure, I'll take that."
If it's the signal you're after, you won't be interested.
If it's the taste you're after, you'll think, "Sure, I'll take that."
If it's the signal you're after, you won't be interested.
Within that metaphor, the FBPEer is a customer who throws a massive tantrum, and refuses to leave the store until he gets his signal-wine.
He doesn't get it, of course. Because they don't have it. But by making a lot of noise, he still manages to send his signal.
He doesn't get it, of course. Because they don't have it. But by making a lot of noise, he still manages to send his signal.
